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Press Releases & Media Kits

The NFB launches the online interactive essay Autour de Saint-Tite

Press release

2011/09/15

Montreal, September 15, 2011 – This coming Saturday, September 17, on onf.ca/saint-tite, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) will launch Autour de Saint-Tite: an interactive sound-and-image essay that explores Quebec's “inner cowboy” through encounters with fans at the annual Festival Western de St-Tite, recorded by photographer Valérie Jodoin-Keaton. The project features sound design by Cédric Chabuel and interactive design by Alex Leduc, and was produced by the NFB's Hugues Sweeney.

Users explore Autour de Saint-Tite by choosing from five video portraits, each of which is complemented with still photos and voice-over commentary (in French only). We meet Stéphanie and Serge, who rode down on horseback from Saint-Félix-de-Valois; Françoise and Jacynthe from Chicoutimi, true-blue fans of Strawberry Shortcake; schoolgirls Coralie and Gabrielle, who say they love the scarves and hats; Rachel from Saint-Bruno in the Lac-Saint-Jean region, who finds sincerity at the festival; and Lewis from France, who knew at age nine that he would become a cowboy when he came to St-Tite.

What does Saint-Tite say about Quebec? Each year since 1967, this small town of 4,000 swells to more than half a million over a few days in September while the festival holds sway. The event reveals a vibrant culture that, to all appearances, is deeply rooted in the collective soul. Yet it receives little attention in—and is even obscured by—the mainstream media. The question remains: Why does such a vital aspect of life in Quebec get downplayed?

Autour de Saint-Tite can also be accessed on ledevoir.com, the online version of Quebec daily Le Devoir, which will publish a report to complement the essay. As part of a partnership agreement between the NFB and the newspaper, two more interactive essays on jointly chosen topics will be featured on the websites of both organizations between now and 2012.

About the NFB

Canada’s public producer and distributor, the National Film Board of Canada creates interactive works, social-issue documentaries, auteur animation and alternative dramas that provide the world with a unique Canadian perspective. The NFB is developing the entertainment forms of the future in groundbreaking interactive productions, while pioneering new directions in 3D stereoscopic film, community-based media, and more. It works in collaboration with emerging and established filmmakers, digital media creators and co-producers in every region of Canada, with Aboriginal and culturally diverse communities, as well as partners around the world. Since the NFB’s founding in 1939, it has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 4 Webbys, 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies. Its NFB.ca Screening Room features over 2,000 productions online, including high-definition and 3D films. The NFB also puts the experience of cinema into the hands of Canadians everywhere through its acclaimed mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms, as well as a pre-loaded app in the BlackBerry PlayBook.